Concept of Big Data Conquered at ASIS 2013

By Ginger Hill

Sep 26, 2013

As day 2 of ASIS 2013 came to a close, I was excited to attend the after-show functions but a little sad that there was only one more day of this trade show. I have found that the people who make up the security industry as a whole are some of the friendliest, most down-to-earth people who genuinely care about others. In my opinion, this has been the "heart" of ASIS 2013.

Once again I spent the day strolling around the show room floor speaking with security executives and professionals, learning about new and exciting products as well as getting a feel for how the industry is changing. One of the key trends is that video surveillance is becoming "IT-centric."

"Data is no longer the ownership of just physical security," explained Olivier with Pivot3. "It now belongs to the overall operation of an organization."

For example, retail stores are collecting video surveillance data and analyzing it to enhance the customer experience. They can determine the demographics that are shopping in certain areas of the store for certain products and create more enticing product displays as a result of this data. This, of course, can lead to higher sales.

Jay Hauhn with Tyco IS explained that another key trend is learning how to actually use the data that's being recorded.

"The security industry has historically been about preventing bad things for happening, but this type of collected data is hard to put an ROI around. With the plethora of sensor-installed equipment, data is constantly being recorded, but then it just sits around. This data needs to be used."

All the collected nuggets of information can be used to implement overall operational improvement as well as provide security.

With all this recorded information, the Big Data movement is upon us, so I asked Hauhn about the elusive Cloud. A lot of feedback that I have received from people is that they are scared of the Cloud, but I think this is because they simply don't understand it. I think Hauhn did a great job of summing it up.

"The Cloud is as secure as it can be at that moment," said Hauhn. "It's important to constantly participate in due diligence of staying in front of any threats by finding the holes and patching them immediately."

In Hauhn's opinion, cloud operators are more conscious of keeping data safe than people who oversee the server on an organization's level.

Well, the final day of ASIS 2013 is here…sadly. I'm anxious to take my final stroll around the showroom floor within the "heart" of the security industry.